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I.AKAYKTTE IN BROOKLYN 



Of this book 2~>0 copies have been printed 
at the Literary Collector Press, as follows: 
15 copies on Imperial Japanese Vellum, and 
235 copies on American Hand Made Paper. 



LAi-AVhl Ih IN HKouKl/i N 



■ Y 

WAIT WHITM \\ 



WITH AV INTRODUCTION 
JOHN BrRROl-(.HS 



.loai.i [). 1UITH 

NtW YORK 

190$ 



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tWK ■- -'V«>' 

MAH 7 1905 

Cowyngnt kjiUy 

/it.i , .7. /'/'<?-' 

CIA&S <^' 'UU. NBi 

/ / r 5 / ''^ 

CO^ A. 



Copyright, 1905 
BY GEORGE D. SMITH 



THE LITERARY COLLECTOR PRESS 
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 



( ON I KN IS 

Introduction 

Ry yohfi Hunou^hj 

I.afaycltc in Iirt)oklvn 

Hy U'iilt Whitnuw 
Notes 



PLATES 

Walt Whitman 

From a photograph by Cox 

Lafayette 

From the painting by 

S. F. B. Morse 

Facsimile of a part of 

Whitman's Manuscript 



The following paper is printcil lit- 
erally trom an unclarcii MS. prepared 
by Whitman for the printer, but 
never published. The minutes of 
the New Kngland Historic (iene- 
.1 logical Society mention two occa- 
M.ifis — October 5, and December 7, 
I ss I — on which papers on I^t'ayette 
were read and followed by "remarks 
by several gentlemen." Whitman's 
name is not recorded in the minutes 
of either meeting. 



INTRODUCTION 
BY 

lOIIN lu KRcnciis 



IN I KODUCI Ion 



II 1 \\ I*^ ottcn heard W hitman 
speak ot' the inciilent ot his 
childhood narrated in the 
toUowing pages, and always u ith 
a teeling ot pride and pleasure. 
It prolvahly occurred in the tall 
of 1824 as Lat'ayctlc landed in 
this country in August ot' that 
year. He came in resp<»nse to 
an invitation from C Ongrejw, 
made through President Monroe, 
and remained with us over a 



IN IKODrC TION 

year, visiting all the principal 
cities and each of the twenty- 
tour states. 

At this time the Whitman 
family had recently moved to 
Brooklyn from the country, and 
I fancy that Walt was a typical 
country hoy t)f about five years, 
not at all ** bright and smart" as 
city boys so often are, but ruddy, 
normal, healthy — a bit of sound 
rural humanity, yet very im- 
pressionable, as his vivid recol- 
lection of the Lafayette incident, 
even to the color of the horses 
and of the barouche in which 
he came, clearly shows. In that 
casual incident of a moment, the 
French democracy of the eight- 
eenth century, as exemplified by 
the life and character of one of 
its most noted representatives, 
embraced and caressed the heir 



IN TRonrcr lov 



ot the new deinotracv ot the 
nineteenth century — its future 
poet and most complete and 
composite emhodiment. 'Ihere 
is something very signihcant, al- 
most tatehil, in the imident. In 
all that crowd ot children La- 
fayette could have touched none 
i>thcr who was destined so to 
gloritV and emhody in imagina- 
tive words the spirit ot" the coun- 
try to whose service he had, in 
his young manhood, so tVecIv 
offered his lite. 

How much his inemorv of 
Lafayette inriuenced Whitman's 
liking for the French people, it 
would he impossihic to deter- 
mine. Certain it is that he al- 
ways had a peculiarly warm 
feeling for that nation, more so 
I think than for any other Ku- 
ropean country. There was some 



INTRODUCI ION 

thing in that audacious revolu- 
tionary vspirit of the French that 
moved him; — that struggle for 
liherty, — r 

Alone, among the sisters, thou. Giantess, didst 
rend the ones that shamed thee. 

He wrote two poems to 
France, the first on the French 
Revolution, published in i860, 
in which he says — 

Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that 

long-accrued retribution ? 
Could I wish humanity different ? 
Could I wish the people made of wood and 

stone ? 
Or that there be no justice in destiny or time? 

The last poem in 1870 was sug- 
gested by the defeat of France 
by the Germans. During this 
w^ar I remember that Whitman's 
sympathies were as pronounced 
in favor of the French, as are 
our sympathies to-day, in tavor 
of Japan as against Russia. The 



IN I KDDLC riUN 

poem is cntitlcii "(> Star (»r 
France." 

Dim, imiiten lur 

Orb not of Fnnct •looe, pde •ymhol of my 

toul, its Jctmt hopes, 
The struggle tnd the daring, ngr divine for 

liberty, 
or asptrations towirH the far ideal — enthuatasi's 

dream o* xl. 

Of terror to ih- aid the priest. 

Trulv there was sDinethinj; 
prophetic in this carets ot the 
chilli \\ hitman hy Latayettc. 

|i)ns !^i KKoi(;iis. 



LAFAYK r IK IN BKi)«"> ' ' V 

BY 

WAI. I Win IMAV 





4 



Thf following^ impromptu remin- 
iscence of Lafayette' s visit to this 
country in /Sjj^^ an J his going 
over one day to Brooklyn^ Sevc 
Vork^ "was gi^cen some time since at 
a meeting of the New Eng/anJ 
Historic Cienea logical Society, in 
Somerset street, Boston. 

K'alt H' hitman. 



LAFAVhl 11 IN liKi)t)KL\N 



1*1' was 111 1S24, I or '2>, I am 
iiDl certain which, I was a 
little ** kid " of live or six 
years old. I I rcineniher it was an 
cxccptionallv pleasant and sunnv 
forenoon. At that time the re- 
ception ot a public man, or other 
festival of the kind, was very 
different from anything of the 
sort now — was ijuiie informal 
and old-fa.shioned, without the 
crowds, and blare and ceremony 



LAFAYETTE IN BROOKLYN 

of the present day ; but was full 
as hearty & far less tedious. The 
people on this occasion all turned 
out and formed on both sides of 
a hollow lane nearly two miles 
long, thickly fringed with well- 
dress'd humanity, women as well 
as men, the children placed in 
front. That was about all, yet 
it was singularly effective. La- 
fayette came over at Fulton Ferry, 
(then called the Old Ferry) in 
a large canary-colored open ba- 
rouche, drawn by four magnifi- 
cent white horses. I think there 
was no band of music, and I think 
no speechifying, (or if so, only a 
few brief words) — but a marked 
profusion of young children, and 
old men, (several of the latter 
were revolutionary soldiers,) and 
a number of blacks freed from 
slavery by the then late New 




m 



^ 




WAI r win FMAN 

^Drk cm.iiu i[i.itit»n .n.(s. These 
diversiricii the main a.vseinblage 
which was coinpiKsed ot substantial 
BrtH)kIvn citizens with their 
wives. 

Through all, the carriage i»t 
the ni)hle IVenchnian was verv 
slowlv driven. I renieinher that 
the tine horscj» and their impa- 
tient action under the curh, at- 
tracted my attention tullv a.smuch 
as the great visitor himsclt. I'he 
whole thing was curiously mag- 
netic and ijuiet. Latavette was 
evidently deeply pleased and at- 
tected. Smiles and tears con- 
tended on his homely yet most 
winning features. 

But the principal incident m 
my recollection is now to come. 
They were at that time just com- 
mencing the foundation ot the 
Brooklyn Apprentices Library, 



LAFAVKTTK IN BROOKLYN 

and Lifayette had consented to 
lay the cornerstone with his own 
hands — that is to grasp it per- 
sonally. Some halt a mile or 
over from the terry, he stopt, 
got out of the harouche, and in 
the midst of the crowd, with 
other gentlemen, assisted in litt- 
ing the children, amid the deep- 
cut excavation and heaps of 
stones, to safe spots where they 
could see the ceremony. Hap- 
pening to stand near, I remember 
I was taken up by Lafayette in 
his arms and held a moment — 
I remember that he press'd my 
cheek with a kiss as he set me 
down — the childish wonder and 
nonchalance during the whole 
affair at the time, — contrasting 
with the indescribable precious- 
ness of the reminiscence since. 
I remember quite well La- 



WAI.T wm I MA^• 
l.l\clU•^ K'i»k^, tall, brt'wn, not 
haiul.Noinc in the tacc, but ot hnc 
figure and the pattern ot gi)i>d- 
nature, health, inanline.v., and 
human attraction. lA life size 
lull length oil-painting exhibited 
years ago in Philadelphia, in 
1877 I think, seems to nie an 
admirable likeness as I recollect 
him at the time. 1 

That beautitul sunshiny day, 
over sixty years since, the spon- 
taneous cftusion ot all stages of 
humanity, and the occasion, made 
a picture, which lime has con- 
tinued to set deeper and deeper 
in my recollection. 



NOTES 

Whitman was l>orn May \\, 1H19. 
l-afaycttc laid the corner stone of* the 
Apprentices' IJhrary on July 4, 1825. 

The Apprentices* Library Building 
was situated at Cranlnrrry anil llcnry 
Streets. I he building was pulled 
down some vears ago, and the associ- 
ation is now incorporated in the 
Brooklyn Institute. 

The of luifavcttc rcfcrrcil 

to h\ \'^ MS the one painted by 

S. F. B. Morse, which now hangs in 
the Governor's room of the Citv 
Hall, New York. 

** Almost in this same neighluir- 
hood [Broadway and Canal Streets, 
New ^ ork] I distinctly remembered 
seeing l^tayette on his visit to 
America in 182 c." — Whitman's "Ad- 
dress on Lincoln." 

** l.atayette was at that time be- 
tween sixty-five and seventy years of 
age, with a manlv figure and a kind 
face." — Whitman's "(itHHlbvc. Mv 
Fincv." 



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